Bogura’s light engineering industry in Bangladesh is transforming from local blacksmith workshops into a global hub for agricultural and industrial machinery, reducing import dependence on China and creating jobs—despite rising production costs and economic challenges.

Bogura district’s light engineering sector has emerged as one of Bangladesh’s most promising industries. Previously solely imported from China, modern farm machinery parts are now made by melting them in a high fire.

After just twenty years, Bogura’s agricultural machinery is currently exporting to other countries and serving the nation’s demands on par with those of China.

In the 1990s, a few blacksmith shops began producing minor parts for irrigation pumps, marking the beginning of this business. There are now around 600 factories in the business. Between 28,000 and 30,000 skilled individuals have been hired by these industries, which have been constructed around the city and its outskirts.

With an annual turnover of four thousand crore taka (329 million USD), these industries produce around 2,000 different types of machinery, such as rice harvesters, organic fertiliser cutting machines, silencers, jute mills, flour mills, and cement mills.

Not only agricultural machinery but also various parts used in textiles, garments, cement mills and jute mills are being manufactured in the workshops of Bogra. This industry is now entering the international market by meeting the domestic demand of the country, as a result of which millions of dollars of foreign exchange are being earned every month. 80 percent of many products imported from China, such as submersible pumps, are now being manufactured in Bogra, which has reduced import dependence and has become a symbol of farmers’ confidence.

light engineering industry Bogura, bangladesh

However, a number of issues are presently plaguing this potential business. Production expenses have gone up, but the product’s market price hasn’t gone up significantly because of the unstable global economy, rising raw material prices, and high fuel prices.

This has an impact on business owners’ profits. Since local products are frequently more expensive than international ones owing to rising production costs, it has become more challenging to compete successfully. Many business owners are thus compelled to lower production.

Entrepreneurs have called on the government to take steps to develop skilled labour, offer loans with favourable terms, supply current technology, and establish factories in certain industrial areas in order to support the growth of the sector.

They assert that this industry may recover and contribute significantly to the nation’s industrial and agricultural sectors without relying on China or India if the government supports it. If nothing is done now, entrepreneurs will suffer greatly, and the nation’s potential light engineering sector would become less competitive in the global market.